Why Fit In...

Hello, hello!  I hope you are having a good weekend. We are finally seeing some sunshine and drying out after a week's worth of rain. It's amazing how just a little bit of sunshine can make you feel so much better!

Today I am sharing a layout that I created for a quote challenge for one of the Facebook groups that I am in. The quote was - Why fit in when you were born to stand out - by Dr. Seusss.

I used the quote for my title of this layout of Matthew with the crazy glasses that he picked out as a reward at the dentist's office. Hard to believe that this guy is now 20!

I used Elle's Studio - XOXO - 6x6 paper pad and all of the embellishments were bits and pieces that I have had on my desk for ages. I thought it was about time to get them used up!

I didn't do any journaling on this page - #1 because I have already scrapped other photos of Matthew in these glasses and told the story then, and #2 - the title, or quote, really says it all for me!

That's about it for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great day!

HIMCR #341 - Any Holiday

Hello, everyone! We have made it to the weekend. This past week seemed extra long, probably because it has rained almost every single day and I am missing the sunshine! They are promising that the sun will come out tomorrow...I sure hope so!

Hiding In My Craft Room has a new challenge this week and since it is the 4th Saturday of the month our challenge is - Any Holiday!

Our sponsor for this week's challenge is Pickled Potpourri and the giveaway is a $7 gift certificate to their store.

This week I had the pleasure of working with the Thumper digital stamp set. Who can resist a cute little bunny?

In this set, you get Mr. Thumper, the Happy Easter sentiment, and there is also a carrot and a cute little chick.

I knew when I got this set that I would be using Echo Park's - Sunny Days Ahead - 6x6 paper pad with it to create my card. With it being a spring/Easter themed collection the colors and patterns were just what I was looking for.

Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room to see the projects from the rest of the design team. We hope to see you playing along with us this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fantastic day!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #252

Hello, everyone! I hope you're having a good day. We are getting so much rain today - ugh! Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be getting the rain because we are in a moderate drought around here, but not this much all at once!  Our yard is literally standing in water in areas and we're not supposed to get much of a break until the weekend. 

Today I am sharing the latest card sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

With all of the rain today and just being tired of winter in general, I decided to make a "hello spring" card. I'll just create my own kind of sunshine!

I've used Echo Park's - Sweet Day - 6x6 paper pad for this card. I am so close to using this paper pad up so you may be seeing it in an upcoming project or two!

I made my own polaroid style die cut by die cutting a square out of the green paper and the cutting around it leaving the bottom edge a little larger than the rest. Then, I put the floral paper behind that. I dug out a super old tiny flower punch for my flowers and added a little pearl to the center of each one. I didn't have any springtime sentiments in my stamps, so I printed the sentiment off of my computer.

The full design team reveal will be up on the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge blog tomorrow along with last week's top 3 picks. We hope you have some time to play along with us this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great evening!

Sketch N Scrap Card Sketch #116

Hello, hello! Good Tuesday morning to you! I hope that your week is off to a good start.

It's already time for our last sketch of the month at Sketch N Scrap. Lisa has created a great sketch for us to work with.

I love this sketch, but for some reason, I struggled with this card. Everything that I tried I just did not like. So, I dug into a new 6x6 BoBunny paper pad that I received in an envelope swap and this card came together so quickly. I guess I just needed some fresh supplies to work with!

I fussy cut the flower that I used from an older Simple Stories collection - A Charmed Life. The yellow matched perfectly with the yellow in the BoBunny - Faith - collection. I stamped the sentiment on the bottom of the square using my trusty old Hero Arts sentiments stamp set.

I love the colors that I used for this card - they aren't colors that I normally use and it was fun to mix things up and work with something a little different.

Head on over to Sketch N Scrap to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the design team. We would love to see your take on this fun sketch, too!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a great day!

Stick It Down February Card Team Reveal

Hello, everyone! Happy Monday to you! I hope that if you are lucky enough to have the day off for President's Day that you are enjoying it! We are having to use today as a make-up snow day, so no day off around here!

Today is the full card design team reveal at Stick It Down. Here is a look at the sketch for February:

I liked the idea of repeated stamping that was shown on the sketch, and since I was sent some coffee themed flair pieces from Cheeky Studio to work with, I decided to use this cute coffee cup stamp that I picked up a couple of months ago.

I stamped the coffee cup stamp several times and then die cut little hearts to go in between each cup. I matted the flair piece several times with foam tape in between each layer for more dimension.

Head on over to Stick It Down to see the beautiful cards from the rest of the card team. We would love to see your take on the sketch.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a great day!

.HIMCR #340 - Buttons or Bows

Hello and Happy Saturday, scrappy friends! I hope that your weekend is off to a good start. Mine is off to a rainy start, but it's supposed to end sunny and warmer.

We have a new challenge today at Hiding In My Craft Room. This week we want to see buttons or bows on your project.

Our sponsor this week is The Paper Shelter and the prize is a $15 gift certificate to their store.

The Paper Shelter provided a couple of images for us to use and I chose to use Enjoy the Spring.

The image I used was pre-colored and I thought it went well with Echo Park's - Sweet Day - papers. It had been a while since I dug out my button box and I was able to find 3 little buttons that matched the papers beautifully!

Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room to see the beautiful projects from the rest of the design team. We would love it if you played along with our buttons or bows challenge this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Scribbles Designs Challenge #62 - Go For Green

Hello, everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day. We didn't do anything special, but Abby and Ada did stay over for dinner, and that's always fun!

Today is the 15th and that means we have a new challenge for you at Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog. This month we are "Going for the Green".

With St. Patrick's day coming up and spring not too far away, there will be lots of opportunities for us to use green in our projects. So, in anticipation of all the green to come, create a project that is at least 55% green. It doesn't have to be monochromatic, you can use other colors as accents, but the majority of your project should be green.

I have created a St. Patrick's Day - 6x8 pocket style scrapbook layout for my granddaughter's album. She wasn't too excited about taking pictures and the only decent ones I got were when we were waiting in the car for her Mommy to pick her up!

For this layout, I have used a variety of St. Patrick's Day images from the Scribbles Designs store:

#B 01 Frame 1

#891 Shamrock Mason Jar

#0121 - Lucky Me

 The shamrock image that I used is a freebie in the store and can be found here -#F81 Shamrock - Free

Be sure to check out the Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog to see the gorgeous green projects from the rest of the design team. We can't wait to see what you create this month!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fantastic day!

Pick 3 at Soul Scrappers - Young Love

Hello again! I am back with one more post today. If you are looking for my Counterfeit Kit Challenge, please go here. If you are looking for my Use Your Stuff reveal, please go here.

I have a new challenge posted today over at Soul Scrappers. I started a new challenge at the first of the year called "Pick 3", so this is the second month for me hosting it. Here are the details - I give you a list of items and you need to pick 3 items from the list to use on your layout. You can use other things, but you must use 3 items from the list.

For February my list is:

washi tape

embellishment cluster

chipboard

word/phrase stickers

tag

border punch

Simple Stories

And here is my layout using Simple Stories - Love and Adore - collection, word/phrase stickers, and a border punch.

This photo is of Abby and Shawn the summer before they got married. We were camping at Pomme de Terre Lake and I just happened to capture this moment from a distance. It is one of my favorite photos of the two of them - Abby sitting on the jungle gym bars and Shawn leaning against them - there's just something about it that I love.

Head on over and check out all of the challenges at Soul Scrappers. We would love to have you play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Use Your Stuff #299 - Love Is All Around

Hello, everyone! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Counterfeit Kit Challenge reveal, please scroll down or go here.

"Love Is All Around" this week at Use Your Stuff. Valentine's Day is just a couple of days away, so it's only fitting that our challenge is all about the love.

I have created a Valentine for someone special!

For this card, I have used the super cute "Valentine" 6x6 paper pad from American Crafts. There are so many cute patterns in this paper pad!

I used this week's sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping - FTL #55:

I embossed the white piece with my swiss dot embossing folder and the sentiment I printed off of my computer. I popped up the heart on some foam tape and added a few red gems, as well. I really love the way this card turned out!

Head on over to Use Your Stuff to see how the rest of the design team interpreted this week's challenge. We would love to see your love projects this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great day!

CKC - February Challenge #1 - I Love Paris

Hello and Happy Monday! We are having a snow day - or more like an ice day -today. We had freezing drizzle and rain on Saturday and got a nice layer of ice on everything and it's been too cold to do any melting, so no school today.

We have our first challenge of the month at Counterfeit Kit Challenge today. "I love Paris" is the theme for this challenge, so we want you to capture the mood of Paris in your projects. Use the iconic buildings, use hearts, lace, whatever you would like. This challenge is quite fitting for the inspiration kit that we had to work with. Here is a reminder of the inspiration kit:

And this is my kit for the month:

This challenge was a bit of a challenge for  me. I have never been to Paris and I don't have a lot of Paris themed items in my stash, but when I think of Paris, I think of love and all things pretty and girly - like hearts, butterflies, and pink - this is what I drew my inspiration from.

I have created a layout of Miss Ada - one of the loves of my life - and, of course, we had to use lots of girly things on here - butterflies, doilies, hearts, and pink!

All of the papers came from my kit and all of them are from Maggie Holmes' Bloom and Open Book collections. I knew this would be the perfect time for me to use that bow paper that I put in my kit. The green paper was a little more green than what I wanted, so I layered a piece of vellum over it to tone it down a bit. 

The "A" in the top left corner was from a scrap of paper and thought it was fitting since Ada starts with an "A" and since I adore her! I used one of the paper clip bows to highlight the word "adore".

I'm not sure I captured the real feel of Paris, but it works for me!

Stop by the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog to see the beautiful projects from the rest of the team. We would love to see your take on our challenge!

HIMCR #339 - Super Scraps Saturday

Hello and Happy Saturday! We have made it around to the weekend again - thank goodness! This past week seemed extra long to me and I am ready for some do-nothing days. We are supposed to get a little freezing rain today, so that is the perfect excuse to stay in and scrap!

We have a new challenge for you today at Hiding In My Craft Room. This week is Super Scraps Saturday - so get those scraps out and use them on your project.

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments Designs and the prize is 3 digital images from their store.

I had the pleasure of working with the Lola - Basket of Hearts image this week.

There's something about those big eyes that just makes me smile!

I had a scrap of red paper out on my desk and the blue piece I found in my scrap pile and it was a good match to the color I made Lola's dress. I embossed the background with a big dot embossing folder because I can't seem to leave anything white plain these days.

Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room to see the projects from the rest of the design team. We hope you find some time to play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a great day!

AHSC #250 - Thinking of You

Hello, everyone! Happy Tuesday to you! I hope your week is off to a good start!

It's a big week for us over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. We are celebrating our 250th sketch this week! I cannot believe that I have been on the design team for 2 years now! They are such a great group of ladies to work with and I always love the sketches that Michelle creates. Here is this weeks great sketch:

For my card, I have used Jen Hadfield's - Everyday - 6x6 paper pad. The sentiment is from Close To My Heart - M1187 Thinking of You - and I think it was a perfect fit for this card. I felt like my card needed a little something more so I added a few enamel dots.

I think this sketch would make a super cute project life style card and I have put it on my to-do list for an upcoming project life spread.

Tomorrow will be the full design team reveal and last week's Top 3, so be sure stop by Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge tomorrow to check it out. We hope to see you playing along with this week's sketch. To celebrate the Top 3 will be awarded prizes this week! We can't wait to see what you create!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day!

HIMCR #338 - Pink and Reds

Hello, everyone! I hope your weekend is off to a good start! We are enjoying a do-nothing day today before the Superbowl tomorrow.

Hiding In My Craft Room has a new challenge today and since it is the first Saturday of the month that means it's a color challenge. We want to see pinks and reds on your projects.

Our sponsor this week is MHK Designs and the prize is 3 digi products.

I had the pleasure of working with the Tweet Tweet digi stamp set. The crazy little birds in this set are so cute and so are the sentiments.

This was a pretty quick and easy card. I decided the birds needed somewhere to perch so I added a scalloped border for them to sit on.

Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room to see the beautiful projects from the rest of the design team. I hope you find some time to get creative this week!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day!

Sketches In Thyme PL Style #95

Happy Friday, everyone! Are you ready for the weekend? I know I am!

Today is the first Friday of the month and that means we have a new sketch posted today at Sketches In Thyme PL Style. Shawn has created a fun sketch for our first sketch of the month.

I am really going to try to work on Ada's first-year album more this year and hopefully get it done, so I decided to make a card for her first Valentine's Day using this sketch.

I embossed the white panel with my Swiss dot embossing folder to add a little interest - the plain white background just looked too plain to me. I die cut the heart using a die from Lawn Fawn.

Head on over to Sketches In Thyme PL Style to see how the other DT member interpreted this sketch.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a great day!

Scribbles Designs 5th Birthday Party Midway Post

Hello, again! I am back with my fifth and I think final post of the day! If you are looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please go here. For my Counterfeit Kit February Reveal Blog Hop, please go here. For my LTCCB reveal, please go here, and for my LTSCB reveal, please go here.

The first of the month means it's time for our mid-month inspiration at Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog! Our current challenge is "Birthday Party Blowout" so show us your birthday related projects.

For my card I am using the "Woolley Party 2" image and the "For Ewe" sentiment from the Woolley Party set. I just love these cute little sheep!

For my card, I have used papers from Dear Lizzy's - Fine and Dandy - 6x6 paper pad. I thought the pink dot ombre paper looked a little like confetti - perfect for a birthday card!

Here are the stamps that I have used:

#734 - Woolley Party 2

#0167 - WP For Ewe

Here's a look at the complete set of Woolley Party

#730 - Woolley Party

We have several chances to win this month so be sure to stop by the Scribbles Designs Challenge Blog to read on the rules!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a wonderful day!

LTSCB #106 - I Love You

It's a busy day around here! I am back with my fourth post of the day. If you're looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please go here. If you're looking for the Counterfeit Kit Reveal Blog Hop, please go here. If you're looking for my Love To Craft Challenge Blog reveal, please go here.

Love To Scrap Challenge Blog has a new challenge up today and it's a very fitting one for February - "I Love You". This month we have a wonderful sponsor - Stamplorations! The prize is a $15 gift certificate to one challenge winner - PLUS - they are giving a 15% discount to our challenge participants using the code LOVETOSCRAP15 (they will take 15% off products in the store excluding gift certificates.) and it is good for the entire month!

I had the pleasure of working with a great stamp set from Stamplorations - A Full Heart - by Becca Cruger.

I stamped the heart on a piece of patterned paper and then fussy cut it out and added pop dots to the back for some dimension. The sentiment is one of several great ones in this stamp set. I stamped it first and then ran that panel through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss dot embossing folder.

Be sure to stop by Stamplorations and check out their site.

Head on over to LTSCB to see the beautiful projects from the rest of the design team. We hope to see you playing along with us this month!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back a little later with one more project to share with you today!

LTCCB #19 - Anything Goes

Hello, again! I am back with my third post of the day. If you are looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please go here. If you are looking for the Counterfeit Kits Reveal Blog Hop, please go here.

Love To Craft Challenge Blog has a new challenge posted today. Our challenges are always "anything goes" and it can be any type of crafty project that you want to make. Be sure to stop by the LTCCB to read all of the rules.

I have created a Valentine's Day card for today.

For this card, I have used Fancy Pants' - Sweet Nothings - paper. That cute heart cluster is a die from Stamplorations - Clustered Hearts - and the sentiment is from - A Full Heart - stamp set by Becca Cruger. 

This is the first time that I have used a die from Stamplorations and they are fantastic! I will definitely be adding more to my stash!

Head on over to LTCCB to see the wonderful projects from the rest of the design team.

I hope you have some time to play along and share your crafty projects with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with one more project to share with you today!

Counterfeit Kit February Reveal and Blog Hop

Hello again! I am back with my second post of the day. If you are looking for my Sketch N Scrap reveal, please scroll down or go here.

I can't believe that it is already time for the new Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop reveal! If every month goes as fast as January has, then this year is going to fly by!

Welcome to my stop on the hop! You should have arrived here from Cindy's blog. If you get lost along the way you can find the complete list on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

Here is a look at our inspiration kit for February. You can find out all the details of this kit along with an unboxing video showing this kit over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

Julene has chosen the Noel Mignon "Weekend In Paris"kit. This kit is full of a great mix Maggie Holmes, PhotoPlay Paper, Heidi Swapp, and Carta Bella papers, and has such pretty colors and fun patterns.

Here is my complete kit, which I have titled "Hot Mess"! 

I tell you what, I just could not stop pulling papers for my kit, and I went a little overboard, but I like a nice variety - especially when I am working with papers that are sometimes hard for me to work with. I wanted to pick papers I knew I would use, but still stayed true to the original kit. Here are my papers and I will break down why I chose what I did.

I wasn't sure where I was going to start with my kit, so I watched the unboxing video (you can find it here) and decided to start with the colors - pink, green, yellow, cream, and black.

The inspiration kit has a lot of Maggie Holmes  "Carousel" collection in it. I don't have any of that particular collection, but I do have quite a bit of the Bloom and Open Book collections, so I started pulling papers with the same colors that I knew I would be ready and able to use.

In the inspiration kit, there is a pink gingham, a paper with scallops, a blue tone on tone paper, and several black and white papers. I made sure to include similar papers, and I tried to include papers that I might not readily pick - to see if I can get out of my comfort zone and get them used up. 

In the inspiration kit, there is a repeated pattern with the pink hot air balloons, so I added in the pink camera paper. I'm sure most of the cameras will be fussy cut, but I may push myself to use a piece of it on a layout.

As an afterthought, I pulled this paper banner (?) type paper from Crate Paper. It resembled one in the inspiration kit and I really like it, so of course, I had to add in a few more papers to go with it!

24 papers...that's quite a few to work with! We'll see how it goes!

For alphas, I pulled a couple of sticker sheets - mostly for the small alphas on them, a kraft colored alpha, a pink, and a black alpha.

For embellishments, I pulled a couple of sticker sheets and a Paige Evans sticker book that matched colorwise and that had images that I thought would work well with my papers. I also pulled a few die cut/ephemera pieces that will work well for layering.

I also pulled my go-to enamel dots, some stick pins, bling, flowers, doilies, and some black and white butterflies.

In the inspiration kit, there were some word/phrase stickers, die cut words, butterflies, fabric bows, and banner embellishments. I pulled out my phrase stamps, some word dies and a bow die. I think I see some forgeries coming!

That is it and I think it is quite enough! I feel like I was all over the place in picking things for my kit - which is why I am calling it "hot mess" - but I am anxious to see what I can create with it this month!

Next up on the hop is Lynette. Head on over and see the kit that she has created!

Here is the complete blog hop list:

• CKC http://counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com.
• Margie http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com
• Guest Designer, Monica http://monicascraftcorner.blogspot.com.au/
• Tina http://tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com
• Cindy http://cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com
• Lori http://loriannie670.blogspot.com
• Lynnette http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com
• Julene http://julenebydesign.blogspot.com
• Kelly http://honeysucklehillcrafts.com 
• Lisa http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com 
• Laura https://www.instagram.com/mrsp_scrapsandtea/

Thanks so much for stopping by! I will be back soon with another project to share with you!